Turn Around and Look
by Ren.2200
Summary: In which Jemma is blatantly flirting with Fitz, and Fitz is just completely oblivious.
1. Chapter 1

Jemma had walked into the lab after about an hour of clothing preparation with Skye. She had finally realized that she liked Fitz _in that way_, and she was going to do something about it. So, dressed in some of her nicer clothes, she walked into the lab prepared. She had memorized what she was going to say (definitely not that she liked him, of course, that would be too easy), and had prepared some funny science pick-up lines that Skye had found on the Internet. They were preposterous, of course, but decided to use them anyways.

"Hey, Fitz."

"Hey," he replied, still looking down at his work.

"Um…" she trailed off, biting her lip. "What are you doing?"

"Just working on this assignment Coulson gave for me. I'm supposed to finish it by Monday." He still didn't look up at her. Well, time to use those _terribly inaccurate_ science pick-up lines.

"So, Fitz, are you made up copper and tellurium? Becau—" But before she finished, Fitz cut her off.

"Of course not, Jemma, that's absolutely preposterous. You know that if humans had copper and tellurium in their system, it would be highly toxic. You of all people should know that. Now, if you're just going to ask silly questions, I have work to be done, and would prefer not to be disturbed. But, we can talk later, I promise."

Jemma sharply exhaled before saying, "Okay, I'll see you later, then." She immediately left the lab and went into Skye's bunk.

"So, how'd it go?" Skye asked, a big grin on her face.

"He took those pick-up lines you gave me too literally. He didn't even let me finish them! Like, I'm flirting with you, you idiot!" She planted her face into Skye's pillow and groaned.

"Don't worry, Jemma. We'll try it from a different angle next time," Skye promised.


	2. Chapter 2

"Ok, Jemma, we'll make sure he knows you're flirting _this time_," Skye insisted. It was a full week after the terribly embarrassing first incident, and Skye and Jemma were ready to go back into the action.

Skye rubbed her hands together, excited for their plotting. "Okay, what you're going to do is you're going to find any excuse—or lack of one—to just touch him."

Jemma's mind automatically screamed red alert. How could Skye think she could just touch him _there_ right now and—

Apparently, Skye caught her mistake. "No, no, no! Not _there_, but just like his shoulder or back or something. Nothing too intimate, you know?"

"Yeah, I got it," Jemma replied.

"Now, go get him!" Skye pushed her out her bunk and towards the labs.

Jemma waited outside the lab doors for a second before taking a deep breath and heading in.

"Good morning, Fitz," she said cheerfully as she slid the lab coat on over her clothes.

"Morning," he replied, smiling at her before looking back down at his work. Jemma took that as a good sign that he smiled at her, so she took the initiative and walked right next to him.

"So, what are you working on?" Jemma hesitantly raised one hand and rested it on his upper arm. He glanced at her hand, slightly confused, but then acted like nothing strange had happened.

"Coulson was saying that his comm was getting too much interference, so I'm just fixing that for him," he replied. He then went into detail of what was wrong and what he was doing. His physical therapist had him doing that when he first starting working in the lab again for helping his brain, and now it started to become a natural thing for him. Jemma listened intently and started rubbing slow circles on his arm.

By the time they took a break for lunch, nothing had happened. Jemma had thought she had done everything right. She had made eye contact all the time, she had found excuses to just touch him, and she stood as close as she possibly could. If Fitz thought something was different, he didn't vocalize it.

She decided to write this one off as another failure. Jemma was being so blatantly obvious with her flirting, and she thought that Fitz would have been able to tell.

Then it hit her.

They were just like this before their whole drama happened. They would always invade each other's' personal space without a second thought. Fitz probably thought that she was trying to get their lives back to the way it used to be. How could she have been so stupid?

Jemma told all of this to Skye later in the day, and both of the girls realized that Jemma was just going to have to say the words, "I'm flirting with you," to Fitz for him to understand.

The next day was going to be hell of a one.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Jemma was prepared, as always. She might have even overprepared. She was going to walk into the lab, say to Fitz that she's been flirting with him the past couple of weeks, then, based on his response, she would act in one of three ways.

If he reacted positively, she would ask him out on a formal date. If he reacted negatively, she would just move on and play it off as some sort of joke. If he reacted indifferently or didn't react at all, she would then go into a very planned-out speech of how she came to terms with her realization of liking him and then list the pros and cons of being a formal couple.

Yep, she was definitely overprepared.

Jemma couldn't sleep the night before, so after making her speeches and very planned reactions, she gave herself many, _many_ mental pep-talks in case of rejection, which her mind went to quite often.

But, perhaps the best pep talk came from Skye.

"Just go out there, say you like him, and take his reactions like a woman!" Skye had said to Jemma before the long-awaited reveal of her feelings. This pep-talk had made Jemma feel infinitely better, and she felt like she could do anything.

She walked into the lab with her head held high.

The first thing Jemma noticed was that Fitz was talking to one of the lower-level scientists. She thinks her name is Brittany or something. Jemma took a deep breath before strutting over to where Fitz and Brittany were.

"Hello Fitz, Brittany," she said, a smile on her face. "Do you think I could steal Fitz from you for a moment?" she directed towards Brittany. Brittany smiled and nodded before leaving the lab.

"What's up, Jemma?" Fitz asked when Brittany left.

"Have you noticed anything…odd about me lately?" Jemma asked.

Fitz pondered for a moment before replying, "No, why?"

Jemma took a deep breath (probably the 10th in just this hour alone). This was it. The moment that could change everything.

"Because I've been flirting with you this past week," she rushed out.

Fitz's eyes widened. Oh no, was this a good or a bad eye widening? Or was it neutral? Should she start going into her planned neutral speech right now?

Before Jemma started her _very long _and _very elaborate_ neutral speech, Fitz sputtered out, "Like a friendly flirting o-or a … romantic fl-flirting?"

Ok, still kind of neutral. Maybe.

"Romantic," Jemma muttered, looking down at her feet. She really didn't want to know Fitz's reaction, her mind automatically going to the worst case scenario. But, she looked up anyway.

And she was glad she did.

Fitz's face was broken in two with a huge smile. Jemma hadn't seen him smile that big in a long time. Well, this definitely went under "positive reaction".

"So, you're happy?" Jemma asked, a smile slowly showing up on her face.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

"I-I thought you had moved on." Jemma took a step closer to Fitz, and he did the same.

"Jemma, I thought you didn't like me, so I just accepted that we would be friends, but I could never get over you."

Joy and relief washed through her, and Jemma let out a nervous laugh. Finally, all this miscommunication was over.

"So, um." Jemma couldn't help but laugh again. This was really happening. "Do you…want to get dinner sometime. Outside the base, of course."

She didn't think Fitz's smile could get any wider, but it did.

"I'd love to."


End file.
